Bubba Shobert rounds turn 5 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, in June of 1987. Shobert made a successful transition from flat track to road racing and won the AMA Superbike Championship in 1988. (Larry Lawrence photo)

Don Wayne Shobert, or Bubba as everyone knows him, was already an AMA champion when he turned his focus to AMA Superbike racing. Riding Hondas, Shobert was AMA Grand National dirt track champion in 1985, ’86 and ’87. He shocked the road racing establishment when he rode a specially built Honda to the Formula One win in the rain at Mid-Ohio in 1984. Never had a rider with so little road racing experience been able to come in and show the nation’s best racers the way around the track.

Some said that riding in the rain was the reason Shobert did so well since he was used to sliding a bike around. Regardless of what made Shobert do so well that day, the road racing powers at Honda were eager to put Shobert on the pavement full-time.

Shobert’s first full year on a Superbike was 1986, and despite having to compete against established Superbike competitors like Fred Merkel and Wayne Rainey, Shobert still found his way to the winner’s rostrum three times that season. The next year Shobert made it to the podium five times and earned his first AMA Superbike win.

His victory came at Laguna Seca and firmly placed Shobert as the heir to the Superbike throne once Rainey and Kevin Schwantz left for the Grand Prix circuit.

The 1988 AMA Superbike Series turned into a two rider battle. It was a familiar battle between Honda and Suzuki and this time the players in the confrontation were a couple of Texans, Shobert and Doug Polen. It was a close battle all year long, both riders took three wins and it was Shobert coming out on top by four points after the final lap was complete.

Shobert was on the fast track to become yet another American World Champion. That possibility was tragically cut short in the very first Grand Prix of the 1989 season at Laguna Seca when Shobert suffered life-threatening injuries when he ran into the back of Kevin Magee, who had stopped his machine in the middle of the track to do a post-race burn out.

Thankfully, Shobert recovered from his head injury but never raced competitively again. He went on to manage several successful AMA 250 Grand Prix teams, and now helps run his family’s food business in Texas.